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Right side view of a red Surly Instigator bike, on a grass field with small bushes, and mountains in the background

After spending a week in Vegasss what is one supposed to do in order to unwind from that fluorescent hell hole?  Ride their bike of course!  And if that person is an engineer for a bike company, it makes sense to test your designs somewhere that is unfamiliar/different.

It has been a long standing tradition that many of the engineers in this here building take a couple days on either end of Interbike to ride bikes in places that aren’t Minnesota.  Between MN and NV, the two most likely hotspots that fit our collective riding preferences are Fruita and Moab.  This year many people’s schedules didn’t align so that left Thor and I 3 days to ride some mountains and make it back to Minnesota.  Being the young pup I am, this was my first foray into mountain biking in the actual mountains.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been riding mountain bikes for a long time, and I’ve been to the mountains every winter since I can remember, I’ve just never put the two together.

When I heard we were going to road trip back home and ride Moab/Fruita I got pretty excited to ride the Instigator in the terrain that I feel it was intended for.  If you were at the outdoor demo this year you would have seen we had a few Instigators built up with tubeless 650b setups.  The design intent behind this bike was to fit our new 26+ platform, as well as be compatible with the new 650b trend that the industry can’t get enough of.  We gave riders the option to ride it either way, and I would have to say, there isn’t a clear front runner.  It just depends on what kind of riding you like to do.  For the kind of rider I am becoming, a narrower 650b tire is perfect.  For many at the demo the wider rim/tire platform was confidence inspiring on the sharp rocks of Bootleg Canyon.  6 of one, ½ dozen of another, pick your poison.  The Instigator performed very well on the whole enchilada, climbing with ease (when I wasn’t walking uphill), and descending like a rocket.  I got a few weird stares and questions about how a hardtail made it through the whole enchilada, but I just dropped the seat, pointed it down the hill, and enjoyed the ride.

I think this ride clearly demonstrated the “all mountain” capability of the Instigator.  Would a full sus cross country 29’er have climbed better, sure, but the descents would have been pretty hairy without the tight wheel base.  And a downhill bike would have negotiated some of the rock gardens better, but I would have been pushing a 40 pound bike up all of the climbs.  The 650b wheels were fast, carved the corners, and the handling was on point.  The tubeless setup was ideal for the sharp rocks and desert climate and we avoided any flats.  It doesn’t matter to me if you are on 26+ or 650b wheels, load up the car with some buddies, grab your Instigator, and go raise some hell.

 

Front view of a person, wearing a bike helmet and sunglasses, with their thumb sticking up, on the right side of a van

We loaded up and got shuttled up to around 10,000 feet.  This is me looking stoked, not knowing we had a big ass climb at altitude to start the day.

Front view of a cyclist, pushing their bike up a dirt trail on a grassy hill, with trees and mountains in the background

Pushing up Burrow Pass to around 11,000+ feet, at least the scenery was amazing.

Grass hills with trees on them, and mountains in the background

Still pushing...Thor only decided to take photos of me off the bike at this point.

Front view of a cyclist, standing on a dirt trail with their Surly Instigator bike laying next to them, in the mountains

Made it to the top, now the fun starts.

Front view of a cyclist, riding a Surly Instigator bike down a rocky dirt trail, in the forest

Front view of a cyclist, riding a Surly Instigator bike, on a rocky trail with a forest behind them

The descent from Burrow Pass was steep and rocky, but super fun and a good way to test the limits of the Instigator.

Rear, right side view of a cyclist, riding an orange Surly bike through a small stream, on a rocky trail in a forest

From there the trail flowed into a high alpine climate with tall aspens and stream crossings.  A little more climbing was required here.

Front view of cyclist, walking their Surly Instigator bike, on a dirt trail in an aspen tree forest

Notice a theme?  Short legs, a week in Vegas, and being a flatlander are all bad for climbing in the real mountains.

Panoramic, rear view of a cyclist, standing over their Surly bike on a hilltop trail, overlooking a mountain range

After the alpine the trail dumped out into an open meadow with a fun, twisty descent, and a jeep road rocket ship ride that deposited us into the desert/slickrock

Front view of two cyclists, standing shoulder to shoulder, on the edge of a canyon wall

Front view of a cyclist, splashing up sand while rounding a corner on their Surly bike, on a trail with trees around it

All in all, a good mix of terrain to put the Instigator through it's paces.

 

From Moab we headed out to Fruita's 18 road trail system.  We only had a few hours to ride, so we rode the access road up a couple times, and then did shuttle runs until it got too hot.

Right view of a cyclist, riding a Surly bike straight away, on a gravel road with fields on the side and mountains ahead

Going up

Front view of a cyclist, jumping their Surly bike from a small mound on a dirt trail, with small trees all around

Front view of a cyclist riding a Surly bike, rounding a corner on a dirt trail, in a prairie field with mountains behind

Front view of a cyclist riding a red Surly bike, rounding a turn on a rocky trail, with small trees behind them

Front view of a cyclist riding a Surly Instigator bike, rounding a berm on a rocky trail, with small trees behind them

And going down

 

I couldn't have asked for a better decompression from all that is Interbike, now back to designing new stuff to test out next year.

About Slippers Cortez

Ben Jungbauer a.k.a. Slippers Cortez

Well hello there, meet Ben, aka Slippers Cortez. Ben is one of the Engineers here at Surly. When Ben isn’t doing bike math and drawings, he’s likely enjoying a beer and playing the mandolin with his brothers in their folk/bluegrass band, The Thirsty River. If you don’t know what a mandolin is, there’s a google for that. If you meet Ben, you’ll notice that he’s the most Minnesotan person you know. We mean that in the best of ways of course. So the next time you're straddling your Surly, think of Ben, because he just might be thinking about you too.